Tuesday & Wednesday Dinners

Chicken with Creamy Tomato-Spinach Rice

After an unlucky run of blah and just-plain-bad dinners, I was out of my "experimental" mode and determined to cook things I knew everybody liked.

Wednesday night I made the above, which is my own take on a recipe I found on Kraft.com. (I forget what they called it, but it was about as inspired as my title.) I've changed it enough to just post what I do:

Heat about 1/4 cup Kraft Sun-dried Tomato Vinaigrette in large non-stick skillet, and brown 1 lb. boneless chicken thighs or breasts (I prefer thighs). Continue to cook until almost all the liquid has evaporated from pan and dressing has cooked down to a thick, syrupy glaze on the chicken. (If you take chicken out when it's cooked through but the pan is still full of liquid, chicken will have no flavor at all.) Remove chicken from pan and keep warm. In same skillet, add 2 cups instant rice, 1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, and 2 cups chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer until rice is tender - about 5 minutes. When rice is cooked, stir in 1/2 of a 8 oz. package of cream cheese, cut into chunks. Keep stirring until cheese melts and forms a creamy sauce for the rice. Add 1/2 of an 8 - 10 oz. bag of fresh spinach leaves. Cover pan for 3 -5 minutes, or until the heat has partially wilted the spinach. Stir spinach into rice, top with reserved chicken, and serve.

Totals:

$2 - boneless chicken thighs (from Aldi - $5.99/3 lb bag)
free - instant rice (after triple coupons)
.55 - canned tomatoes
.40 - 1/2 package cream cheese
$1 - 1/2 package spinach
.65 - chicken broth (1/2 carton)

$4.60 for dinner for 4 (+ sister) with leftovers for another serving (I used 5 chicken thighs)

We also had dessert last night - a Mrs. Smith's Dutch Apple Crumb Topped Pie served with Edy's Caramel Delight reduced fat ice cream. The pie was only $1.75 after sale + triple coupon, and Harris Teeter had Edy's ice cream on sale for $1.99 last week (so I stocked up as much as my full freezer would allow). Total for dessert was about .45 per serving.


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Tuesday was busy as usual for me, so it was more about putting a meal together than actually cooking. I made Veal Parmesan with Italian breaded veal cutlets from Aldi. These are a specialty item they don't carry all year-round, so now is the time to buy them if you're interested. (The High Point Road Aldi had plenty when I went on Monday evening.) At $6 for a package of 9 cutlets, they're also very economical.

After pan-frying, I topped the cutlets with mozzarella and baked in the oven to melt the cheese. I served them over spaghetti with jarred sauce (one of the 6 jars of Bertolli I got for free with raincheck and super double coupons). Frozen garlic bread rounded out the meal.

Totals:

$2 - veal cutlets
.50 - spaghetti
free - sauce
.75 - mozzarella cheese
.63 - garlic bread (HT brand - $1.68 for 8 slices)

$3.88 for dinner for 3